Tag: Grey

Japan – Grey has appointed Kimihiro Takano as the new managing director of Grey Japan, effective 1 July 2025. Masahiko Okazaki, the previous CEO, will transition to a new role as executive vice president of business innovation at WPP in Japan.

Takano was most recently business director at Wieden+Kennedy Japan, overseeing the Japan and Korea markets. He previously held senior roles at PARTY, Dentsu, and the Tohokushinsha Film Corporation.

With over 15 years of industry experience, Takano’s background spans sectors including financial services, publishing, electronics, film and video production, entertainment, media, and content creation. He has led both local and international projects, notably the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where he coordinated with key stakeholders such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Japanese government, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. His work has earned recognition at major international awards shows.

In his new role, Takano will work alongside the existing leadership team to support a smooth transition and deepen relationships with Grey’s local and global clients.

Takano shared, “Grey has built an impressive track record in Japan for over 60 years, establishing itself as a truly global agency. I am honored to join Grey Japan as part of this legacy. Guided by the principle of ‘Famously Effective,’ our strength lies in addressing essential business challenges, driving brand growth, and creating ‘Cultural Value’ that propels people and society forward. I aim to deliver new value that combines the cultures of Japan and the global landscape to pioneer the next era.”   

He will report to Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of WPP in Japan, and collaborate closely with Sarah Trombetta, Grey’s APAC CEO. His mandate includes accelerating business growth and driving innovation, while continuing to deliver Grey’s “Famously Effective” work for clients.

Trombetta said,“Kimi-san is a dynamic, ambitious leader who is shaping the modern face of our industry in Japan. Through his diverse experience, Kimi-san recognises the need to blend creativity with innovation to solve business challenges. This, we believe, will be critical to continue to elevate our strategic partnership with clients and brands navigating radical digitisation.” 

She continued, “Kimi-san embodies the values at the core of Grey’s culture and the WPP network, built on open minds, a spirit of collaboration and commitment to extraordinary creativity. We are excited for him to write the next chapter for Grey Japan.” 

Matsushita added, “I am truly delighted to welcome a new leader to Grey, an agency which has achieved numerous accomplishments in the Japanese market within the WPP network. I also want to express my gratitude for Masa’s leadership thus far, and I look forward to his continued contribution to the growth of WPP’s business as a member of WPP’s Japan executive committee.”  

Takano’s appointment follows a series of leadership changes across Grey’s global offices in 2025, including Elvis Li as president of Grey China, Agnes Fischer as CEO of Grey New York, Harsh Kapadia as chief creative officer of Grey India, and Helen Rhodes as chief creative officer of Grey London.

India – Bandhan Mutual Fund, in partnership with Grey India, has launched the second phase of its ‘Salary Wala Plan’ campaign, focusing on themes of financial independence and the freedom to pursue personal interests.

The first phase of the campaign, released a few months ago under the title ‘Bache hamara khayal rakhenge’, challenged a traditional social dynamic by suggesting that parents need not rely on their children for monthly income. Instead, they can draw a steady income from their own investments through the ‘Salary Wala Plan’.

The new instalment, ‘Mera Beta Kuch Nahin Karta’ (My Son Does Nothing), shifts attention to individuals seeking to move away from conventional employment. It presents stories of people choosing to follow their passions—whether in art, music, travel, or entrepreneurship—without being constrained by expectations tied to a regular salary.

This phase continues to frame financial independence as more than just a numbers game. It positions it as the freedom to choose alternative life paths, supported by a consistent income stream.

Central to the campaign is a repositioning of the Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP), recasting the investment product as a relatable concept: a self-funded, salary-like income generated from one’s own savings.

“With ‘Salary Wala Plan’, we’ve taken something as technical as SWP and given it a human voice – one that speaks directly to the end benefit: the comfort of receiving a consistent monthly income. It’s not about financial products; it’s about what those products enable in real life. And that’s what makes the idea stick,” said Harsh Kapadia, chief creative officer at Grey India.

Meanwhile, Vishal Kapoor, CEO of Bandhan AMC, said, “Investors today are increasingly looking beyond conventional retirement timelines. Many want the flexibility to retire early, take a pause, or follow their dreams. That kind of choice requires foresight and a reliable income strategy.”

He added, “Through this campaign, we want to show how a systematic withdrawal plan could turn long-term investments into a regular, salary-like income. The ‘Salary Wala Plan’ makes this idea accessible and relevant to investors who are ready to take control of their time, goals, and income—on their terms.”

Thailand – Restaurant chain Bar BQ Plaza has launched its ‘Sad Kama-Chan’ campaign with advertising agency Grey Thailand to spark smiles among its customers. Placing a frown on its usually cheerful fishball, Bar BQ Plaza aims to attract its customers.

In collaboration with Grey Thailand, Bar BQ Plaza transformed its mascot, Kama-Chan, from a smiling fishball into a sad one in an effort to capture its customers’ attention.

Sad Kama-Chan was also featured in a limited-edition promotional meal set. It generated content on social media as customers shared photos of the sad fishball.

Fans called on Bar BQ Plaza to bring back Kama-Chan’s smile. As part of the campaign, Bar BQ promised to return the iconic mascot to normal once it reaches its sales target.

The ‘Sad Kama-Chan’ is Bar BQ Plaza and Grey Thailand’s response to the brand’s 10% drop in sales last year, showing customers how they feel about it.

Additionally, the campaign aims to create an emotional connection between Bar BQ Plaza and its customers, blending creativity and boldness in its execution.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – CelcomDigi Berhad has announced the appointment of Grey Malaysia as its new brand agency partner.  Grey will be responsible for the overall brand and corporate communication for CelcomDigi, one of Malaysia’s largest telecommunications provider.

The appointment comes after a rigorous selection process which began in Q3 of 2024 and also includes the appointment of GrowthOps and M&C Saatchi. Each of the agencies will support CelcomDigi’s three critical business areas as it moves into its next phase of growth.

Moreover, the new account represents a major win for Grey Malaysia. 

Irene Wong, CEO at Grey Malaysia, said, “With technology so tangibly revolutionising how we do almost everything, we leapt at the chance to work with CelcomDigi.  As a business, we grow through the quality and ambition of our work, and their vision and capability of utilising technology at such scale is really exciting for us.  From the inside out, new tools such as our Ai suite WPP Open is enabling us to adapt faster than ever, opening up whole new ways of optimising our creativity.”

Meanwhile, a CelcomDigi spokesperson said in a statement, “This collaboration comes at an exciting time, as ongoing transformations in digitalisation and emerging technologies continue to reshape our operating model. We are excited to work with our new agency partners to realise our vision of becoming a customer-driven, strategy-led, best-in-class solutions provider.”

Grey has assembled a bespoke agency team, with specific skill sets to work with the new clients. Graham Drew, chief creative officer at Grey Malaysia/Singapore, stated, “As an agency you’re only ever as good as your partners.  The potential to make innovative and meaningful work with a customer-centric organization such as CelcomDigi is massive. As part of the creative process, emerging technologies have very quickly moved from novelty to absolute necessity, CelcomDigi don’t just appreciate that, they are asking for it.”

India – Grey India has appointed multi-award-winning creative leader Harsh Kapadia as its chief creative officer, signalling a bold move to strengthen its creative leadership and drive innovation in the Indian market.

Mumbai-born and globally acclaimed, Harsh Kapadia joins Grey India from MRM New York (part of McCann Worldgroup), where he has served as chief creative officer since 2021. His appointment marks a return to the WPP network, bringing with him a wealth of experience from his leadership roles at VML and JWT.

Over the years, Kapadia has held senior creative positions at VML and JWT across New York, London, Melbourne, and Mumbai, working with leading brands such as Kleenex, Smirnoff, Rolex, and Nestlé. His ‘Drink Up’ campaign at VML earned recognition from Michelle Obama, and he played a key role in securing the agency’s first Pride of Cannes Lions. 

A multi-award-winning creative, his work has been recognised at Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clios, and Spikes Asia. He has also served as a jury member for top industry accolades, including Cannes Lions and D&AD Impact.

Kapadia’s return to India is particularly significant given his deep understanding of the local market and his exposure to global best practices. With experience spanning four continents, he has a proven track record of delivering impactful campaigns for global clients such as Google, Reckitt, Motorola, Lego, New Balance, and Diageo.

In his new role at Grey, Kapadia will be based in India and report to Grey’s global chief creative officer, Gabriel Schmitt. He will also collaborate closely with Anusha Shetty, CEO of Grey India, who brings over 25 years of marketing and advertising experience.

“I’m thrilled to continue my global journey while returning to WPP and lead Grey India at such a transformative moment. Partnering with Anusha and the exceptional team at Grey, I’m eager to harness the philosophy of Cultural MacGyverism—blending rich local insights with cutting-edge marketing—to create work that drives real business impact,” Kapadia said. 

Together, Kapadia and Shetty will lead Grey India’s next phase of growth across its Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore studios, focusing on delivering famously effective creative solutions that connect with local audiences and make a global impact.

“India presents a tremendous opportunity, both culturally and economically. We need to be at the forefront of marketing and communications, creating exceptional work for the remarkable brands we represent there,” Schmitt said. 

He continued, “Harsh’s experience in New York, London, Melbourne and India, coupled with his deep understanding of the local culture, makes him the ideal leader to drive lasting value for our clients. With Harsh and Anusha at the helm, our clients will gain a significant creative advantage and unparalleled client partnerships. Can’t wait to see the ideas flowing.”

“Harsh’s return to India is an extraordinary win for Grey. He is a well-known creative force with deep experience across brands and strongly believes in the application of technology to ideas and ideas to technology; we couldn’t have asked for a stronger addition to leadership,” Shetty added. 

Kapadia’s appointment highlights Grey’s dedication to elevating its creative excellence in the vital Indian market, leveraging his unique fusion of local insights and global expertise.

Sarah Trombetta, CEO of Grey APAC, said, “Bringing together the proven leadership of Anusha Shetty with the creative vision of Harsh, whose experience spans the spectrum from cutting-edge AI-driven technology solutions to time-tested traditional advertising, sets Grey India up for an exciting future.”

“This breadth of world-class expertise will allow us to craft uniquely effective campaigns that resonate with diverse Indian consumers across all platforms and touchpoints,” she added.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Local telco TM and Grey Malaysia have collaborated to bring the nation together via technology to celebrate Malaysia’s diversity by allowing Malaysians to now see and share themselves singing an iconic Malaysian song of unity in any of 17 different languages and dialects.

The AI platform, done by Grey Malaysia, utilises the tradition of celebratory song to create a universal invitation to engage with the potential of AI, furthering TM’s commitment to making technology accessible to all Malaysians. 

The campaign uses a combination of seven AI technologies to bridge language barriers and connect diverse voices, uniting the country and bringing everyone closer to a truly inclusive Digital Malaysia.

Housed on a microsite at https://sejutasuara.tm.com.my/, Malaysians now have the opportunity to sing their rendition of Gemuruh, a well-known Malaysian song, in various local languages and dialects effortlessly. This is made possible with the assistance of integrating seven cutting-edge AI and API platforms that specialise in lip sync and voice cloning. 

With the help of Kits.ai, HeyGen and SyncLabs, the microsite can trace and clone the voices of Malaysians to sing with pride, in their choice of language or dialect. 

The campaign was created alongside Directors Think Tank and Nacho Usual Collective to produce the first Malaysian music video that consists of AI-generated vocals in multiple languages and dialects.  Bringing to life the richness of our languages through the diverse expressions of Malaysians delivering their own versions of Gemuruh, making this the ultimate music video for Malaysian by Malaysians.

Lysha Zulkifly, senior copywriter of Grey Malaysia, said, “By exploring the complexity of AI voice mapping, we wanted to use the tech to our advantage by celebrating the diversity of our languages and dialects. It’s beautiful to hear how rich our country is in culture, through this platform. I believe this is just the beginning for us to make AI our ally.”

Tokyo, Japan – Grey Tokyo has announced the promotion of current executive planning director Rui Nago to the role of chief strategy officer. He first joined the agency in 2010, and has since then been responsible for developing the brand, creative, and overall communication strategies across the agency’s clients.

Some of the campaigns that he has worked on include P&G Pantene’s brand campaigns: ‘#More freedom in job-hunting hair’, ‘The Hairy Tale’, ‘#PrideHair’, and Domino’s Pizza Sanchoku (farm-fresh), to name a few.

Speaking on his new role, he said, “The world is changing with increasing speed, and we cannot see what the future holds in these times. I believe that strategy once again redefines a brand’s reason for existence, guides the brand in the right direction for their future, is creative, and is becoming more and more crucial. I am excited to help create many clients’ future whilst leveraging Grey’s strength of seamlessly connecting strategy with creativity.”

Meanwhile, Yukiko Ochiai, president and CEO at Grey Tokyo, commented, “Rui is an exceptional strategist, successfully driving Grey’s effectiveness agenda to bring success to our key clients. He has been a fundamental contributor to our recognition as Spikes Asia Agency of the Year 2022, alongside our 2021 APAC Effie wins.”

She added, “He will be instrumental in relentlessly playing different combinations of strategic skills from within the group to enhance our creative solutions and help our clients navigate their way through a challenging and changing world.”

Hong Kong – With the COVID-19 pandemic’s fifth wave gradually subsiding in Hong Kong, financial service giant HSBC has launched a new local campaign to support the local community, conceptualised alongside Grey Hong Kong.

Eighteen designated HSBC branches will become Hong Kong’s photo-worthy spots. To spread positivity and unveil the city’s hidden gems, each branch across the eighteen districts will showcase signature landmarks and sights of the district along with a dedicated, inspirational quote. 

The HSBC Main Building in Central also recently launched the ‘Branching Out Our Support’ light show – urging the Hong Kong community to slow down and enjoy life while capturing new opportunities. 

Luanne Lim, CEO for Hong Kong HSBC, said, “HSBC has been supporting the HK community for 157 years. Launching the ‘Branching Out Our Support” campaign allows us to stay closely connected with the community, which we hope will continue to thrive.”

Meanwhile, Sonic Choy, creative partner at Grey HK, commented, “The people in HK have been making a concerted effort to meet with all the challenges posed by the pandemic. We want to give them the opportunity to experience some joy, and enjoy all the photo-worthy spots, accompanied with inspirational quotes.”

The campaign will be rolled out in HSBC branches and on social media for the Hong Kong market. In addition, HSBC has launched a check-in mini-game on Facebook and Instagram to encourage people to tour different districts of Hong Kong. They will also randomly select 40 lucky winners to each receive an HKD2,000 HKTV Mall coupon.

Singapore – Global toy brand LEGO has launched a new campaign called “Brick The Rules”, which showcases how LEGO cars can offer a very unique form of play that enables kids to imagine, build, unbuild and rebuild once more, in fun, new, exciting ways that are only limited by your imagination.

Created in collaboration with creative agencies GREY Singapore and GREY Dubai, the campaign gives kids the freedom to build and play with a great deal of imagination. The campaign perfectly captures the truth that playing with LEGO bricks allows kids not only to enjoy the cars they have a passion for but also helps them express themselves freely and gives them the space to develop their creativity. 

In addition to the campaign, an online film has been released that shows ‘how 5 minutes and being told not to do something’ is all the invitation a kid needs to “Brick the Rules”.

The GREY collective said, “It was a project where in the process we also had to break/brick some rules. A borderless effort between the Dubai and Singapore studios, we shot with a production house in Brazil, and the client was in South Africa. The result, as you can see, is super fun, eye-catching, and with several hours invested behind the craft and editing.”

The campaign included social content, e-commerce, posters and in-store materials, and will run in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Singapore – Grey Group Singapore’s latest account win is a multi-client approval to create a new Singapore-based sustainability youth incubator. In its development, the agency will be partnering with top organizations for sustainability – organization for wildlife conservation and endangered species, World Wildlife Fund, (WWF); Temasek foundation, the state sovereign fund’s non-profit organization (NPO), and Green Is The New Black, media and events platform for sustainability.

The incubator will host a series of masterclasses and boot camps as well as a 6-month mentorship program to inspire and support the next generation of sustainability doers and creators. The initiative has already started and delivered masterclasses with top speakers from Project Drawdown, an NPO for climate solutions, and abillion, a discovery platform for vegan food and products, among other companies. 

The movement is called ‘We Got This’ and is currently recruiting boot camp applicants.

Lim Hock Chuan, chief executive of Temasek Foundation Liveability, said that the youth today embrace global sustainability issues and digital conversations and that there is a skills gap that needed to be bridged in sustainability advocacy among them.

“Temasek Foundation is happy to be part of the team to bring together like-minded partners to launch #WeGotThis, with a focus on helping our youths to do, try, test, speak up, and build small wins one upon another,” said Lim Hock Chuan.

Konstantin Popovic, CEO of Grey Singapore Group, remarked on the next generation of marketers, “We are welcoming people from all walks of life, and that includes the next generation of marketers. Whether you are in university, an intern or just starting your marketing career – if any aspect of sustainability is your passion, we want you to join.”

The project is working with partners and mentors to identify 50 youth in Singapore and South Korea to launch their own sustainability movement. Support will be provided to young people selected through an intensive boot camp application process in understanding how to use digital media platforms available to talk about sustainability, understanding issues better, and increasing a change towards a more positive future.

The agency’s Executive Creative Director Aaron Phua added, “Our movement is deliberately positive, non-accusatory and truly looking for young (and young at heart) problem-solvers who deserve our support.”